To be an effective leader, you must become likable. A characteristic that’s not talked about enough, your likability increases effort, trust, and growth for your teams and company.

As the holiday season nears, I want to give you the gift of emotional freedom by encouraging you to use a couple of simple tricks when thinking about and communicating your emotions.

This morning, I blocked a priority event on my calendar that was absolutely non-negotiable, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve made in a long, long time.

Brainstorming? Nope.

Team meeting? Nuh-uh.

Content creation? No (but that IS coming soon, stay tuned).

I attended Track & Field Day at my sons’ elementary school.

I literally paused before starting to type again because I thoroughly found so much joy in watching them, and their classmates, let loose on an absolutely perfect day. Then it struck me how often we as adults forget to just have fun with whatever we’re doing. Whether it’s work related, life related, or just personal time, we seem to have overloaded schedules of “stuff” and “meetings” that tend to pull our energy and drain us by the end of the day.

Many of the issues that leaders are facing nowadays come down to engagement and communication. Often deemed a “soft skill” (don’t get me started on that) emotional intelligence (EQ) is a critical skill to bridge the gaps that companies are seeing between their “leadership” and employee engagement.

So why is emotional intelligence so important in leadership?

Emotional intelligence accounts for 58% of your performance as a leader and almost 90% of all top performers have a high emotional intelligence.

In this newsletter, I will share the most impactful benefits of emotional intelligence for leaders and ways that you can increase your emotional intelligence in a few simple (and fun) minutes a day.